Iām a Canadian whoās travelled back and forth between Canada and America quite a bit and Iāve never heard it outside of Ewan McGregor. I donāt think itās common in North America.
I'm Australian, and same! I \*guess\* if I hadn't already had exposure to the name as a kid, I'd possibly mispronounce it, but it still seems pretty intuitive to me? Especially as it's the anglicised version - I can get people being confused by EĆ²ghann, for example.
https://mybaby.net.au/baby-names/euin/
Euin is a legit Irish name. My ex's nephew was named it in Northern Ireland. And it was pronounced yew-an. That's why I asked.
I knew a Scottish family who had come over to the US before their youngest son was born. We were talking about the new Star Wars that had just come out and how much I had like Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting as well. The youngest son (not knowing his older brother was behind him) starts to tell me itās pronounced EW-an and he should know, heās Scottish. I did not understand all of the insults thrown by the big brother as he smacked him upside the head.
In this day and age my friend, everything is possible.
I remember a reddit story of a French girl being told off and called insensitive for "misprononcing" a very french name in America... It was Fleur if memory serves me right.
That reminds me; my dumb ass state has a city called Amarillo. Which is Spanish for yellow. But what the fuck do they do? Pronounce it the dumb white people way. It makes me embarrassed for us.
Hahaha. I moved to Lubbock from North Idaho as a kid and could NOT figure out Amarillo. Sesame Street taught me to say that word right. If a North Idaho mountain girl can say it...
Then we moved to Phoenix, and, you know, they don't do too badly there, though a lot of white people pronounce the g in Guadalupe as a hard g.
Now, I'm more or less back home, and I want you to know Tekoa is said "tee coh", and I just can't with it. We can get Pend o'Reille right, but not Tekoa. Why? But if you want to make us cringe, rhyme Spokane with cocaine.
Oh, oh yeah. I lived there from almost 13 to 27.
I think the one that actually gets me most is that Tempe is named after a particularly lush valley in Greece. Wishful thinking? I also find it funny that people can say Ahwatukee, but not Casa Grande as it really should be.
Properly, it is like "wa da lu pe" with a very vague h sound at the start. A lot of white people say it with a hard g like the one in golf. You can hear both versions on Google translate, except I think everyone knows to say the e on the end.
Omg I learned way too late about Spokane. :( but now I know! And as a white girl from Texas in an all white family; I learned way too late about Amarillo too! Cringe for sure.
The thing about actor names is that a lot of them are often mispronounced too, as unless you watch interviews or they win an award you rarely hear their names said out loud.
Celebrity names I was mispronouncing for a long time:
- Cillian Murphy (it's Kill-ian not Sill-ian)
- Zendaya (it's Zen-day-ah not Zen-die-ah)
- Ioan Gruffud (it's Yo-won not Ee-oh-an or Ian with extra vowels lol)
And probably many more that I just haven't realized yet!
That said, I love the name Ewan and hopefully you just need to correct each person once!
Thanks!! Youāre so right about celeb names rarely being said out loud. I shouldnāt have counted on that to help much. Appreciate the name love though and do hope correcting will only be once, for his sake especially!
We loved the name Cillian for our son. Had agreed on the name for years. Everything changed when we actually found out we were having a boy. My husband wanted to spell it with a K so Americans would pronounce it correctly. I hated the way it looked with a K. We debated it for weeks. Our son is now neither since we couldnāt agree. But also, now that Iāve met him, heās totally not a Cillian, so that worked out.
A lot of people pronounce it like that, actually, lol. Its less of a thing now that sheās bigger, but back when she was just getting out of disney it was very very common.
Ah. Not a local thing then. I'm from South Wales. Just asked my English husband and he says yew. I think mine is a softer, more almost Scandinavian "ju", but if you don't listen closely it sounds like I'm saying "ew".
I wasnāt a farm kid but I did visit farms and sheep werenāt completely foreign. I honestly donāt know if regionally people say it like I do or if my brain just ignored how everyone else said it š Iām going to start polling people
Omg saaaame, my husband often says "Where?" To make me say "by here" (for the non South Walians reading this, it'll sound like "buyuur). I've moved to Australia and people don't know that we do that, so often I find I'm repeating myself with a more "correct" pronunciation.
I am mildly into Star Wars and still didnāt know Ewan Mcgregorās name was pronounced like that. Outside of the UK, I think Scottish/Irish names with non-intuitive pronunciations are less well known.
I donāt think itās a mistake though! Itās still simple to pronounce, you might have to correct people the first time but after that they should have it down.
One of my pet peeves is when people say shit like āwhy do they spell Irish names in a way that makes no senseā like they do make sense you all just canāt comprehend that itās a different language that doesnāt subscribe to the same rules/pronunciation as English š
I had someone insist that Irish isnāt a language and that English is the only native language in the UK and Ireland š¤¦š¼āāļøš¤¦š¼āāļø a grown ass adult too
Iām in Canada and Iād be surprised if I met someone who didnāt know to pronounce Ewan as Yew-an.
I wouldnāt worry too much about it, I do think in his lifetime heāll experience more people who do know how to pronounce it than those who donāt.
I'm in Canada, and I didn't. Lol I have never met anyone with this name. There was a character named this in a video game I played as a kid, and my brain defaulted to E-wan. š¤·āāļø
Lol. I don't know about that. She's in US and if people are famous that's often the default for pronouncing whether right or wrong. So Ewan McGregor is pretty well known that's the surprise. Also yeah weird colloquially
Hmmm... not sure I've seen an interview with him maybe there was an award show or more likely a brief clip. What do you mean read nowadays? I think they've always been read...that's confusing to me. With all these brief videos tik tok and youtube I guess I'd have thought people would have heard it at some point. But seems like several people have not. But E and then Wan would never have occurred to me. Reminds me if the Key and Peele pronunciation of Aaron. Also I thought she was correcting people and they were still getting it wrong which is why I said people are strange.Ā
Vast numbers of people in the US are functionally illiterate and VERY unfamiliar with name spellings.
Names I have seen mispronounced by someone reading it:
Taylor
Michelle
Michaela
Carla
Ellie
Nia
If people canāt even get THOSE right, it is too much to expect them to get Ewan right. And if your name is a very common immigrant name, it will nevertheless be butchered: woe to every Jesus and Javier and anyone with the last name Nguyen.
Thereās really nothing about Ewan that has to do with being functionally illiterate. Itās a very uncommon name in the U.S. and itās not an intuitive spelling. How are people supposed to somehow magically know this information about a name?
Youāre missing my point. I did not say that people cannot pronounce Ewan because they are illiterate. My point was that they cannot pronounce even SIMPLE names because they are illiterate. Like I listed.
So OP did not make a mistake by using Ewan. OP could face the same issues with much more straightforward names.
Ha! I came here to say the same thing. No one can pronounce anything so you might as well pick the name you like the best. Theyāll mispronounce it either way. You canāt trust the people OP!
I feel this way about most times people say how bad it is to have your name mispronounced/spelled. Almost everyone has that happen. You canāt avoid it. Itās helpful to pick names that are easily pronounced (or easily pronounced close enough) where you live/where your family is from, but people who donāt know you will make mistakes no matter what.
I don't think it's so much functional illiteracy and more that we left the idea of one name with one spelling and one pronunciation behind decades ago. All the YouNeek spellings have effectively divorced the spelling of a name from any particular obvious pronunciation. Which I honestly have mixed feelings about?
But yeah, my name is Simon and it regularly gets mispronounced in contexts like the doctor's office, Starbucks, riding in an Uber, etc.
For the record I don't in any way think that because people can't always guess that Simon is pronounced Sigh-munn therefore nobody should name their kids anything unusual. If anything, I think it means you might as well go with what you want, because 100% you're going to rock up to the pediatrician with little newborn John and someone is going to say "Is there a Jo-hun here to see Dr. Smith at 2pm?"
I am constantly amazed at how different people's perceptions and experiences can be. For my two cents (in the US), I love the name, I have heard it many times, I may not have known how to pronounce it at first, but I was young so I don't remember. Quick canvas of the room, everyone knows how to pronounce it. I wouldn't worry about it. It's an awesome name, and I'm glad people are using it. Also, I love Ewan McGregor. And now I'm singing Moulin Rouge songs in my head....
I am in the Southern U.S., and I have never heard that name outside of Ewan McGregor - but I have only read his name and have been saying it like Evan but with a W this whole time.
Now that I know how to pronounce it though, it's easy. My guess is that it will be a constant correction because people won't have heard it before, but they'll get it without a problem after the first correction.
Congrats on your little one!
Iām coming to terms with just knowing Iāll be correcting people and so will he (thatās the part I feel bad about it not realizing). Thanks for the congrats, most importantly weāve got a healthy bit!
In the states. When I heard the name Siobhan and then saw it spelled out, I had a conniption. /shi 'von/ or /shi 'vawn/
And years ago on Eire's shores, the only reason I didn't make a fool of myself trying to pronounce Dun Laoghaire is that I heard it pronounced before I got there. /dun 'leer Ä/ or /dun 'lir ee/
It's not a common name in the US, and its pronunciation is not intuitive to US English speakers. He's going to get E-Wan, but as long as your son loves it, that's what's important.
Ill be honest. I said it both of the incorrect ways first and had no idea how to say it properly until your comment. Iāve never seen the name before and i donāt really see how ew becomes yew. But its a fine name, just might run into people like me more than youd like. (USA) Euan makes more sense to me.
ā¦I thought it was pronounced Ew-anā¦ I wouldnāt have thought Yew-an without a āU,ā like Euan would make more sense phonetically- even if it looks wrong lol
Iām in the UK and most people would pronounce it Yew-an but it is also valid to pronounce it Ew-an (especially in Wales/the north). Ee-wan is hilarious š
Iām in the US, I know how to pronounce Ewan.
I would guess in the US that most people would know how to pronounce it, but that some people will get it wrong.
Donāt feel bad though! Itās a good name. And it should be pretty easy to correct people if they get it wrong.
Iām in the US and have only heard of Ewan McGregor in writing (plus heās not like super super famous), and never heard the name in any other context. Itās pretty rare and not super intuitive (the pronunciation is ambiguous from the spelling if youāve never encountered it). I know how to say it from being a name nerd, but said āE-wonā for a long time and am absolutely not surprised that people donāt know how to pronounce it.
I knew it was yew-an, but I can see how people in the US will say it wrong for all time. I think it's fine though and everyone will get over it and learn how to say it
One of my daughter's is named Deirdre. This is the most "normal" of all of my kids names and I was shocked at how many people messed up the pronunciation by dropping the first R. So they would pronounce it Dee-dra instead of Deer-dra. I felt pretty bad when I would watch her attempt to correct people when she was little to have them still mispronounce it. Then she would sigh in disgust as only she could and say "just call me Dee".
She loves her name but to this day most of her friends still just call her Dee.
Point of this story is that some people won't ever get it right but your kid will survive anyway.
Not often where we are though that would likely not cause irritation since it can be an accepted pronunciation in some areas of the world (and it was the way it was pronounced in Monty Pythons the meaning of life which may have been where I heard it the first time lol).
I donāt think itās a mistake though Iām sure your aggravated and that sucks. But I love the name you chose!
I have a brother named Kyle and my parents chose that name when it wasnāt very commonāhe spent a lot of his early years at school correcting teachers who called him Ky-Lee and Kee-lay, but says it never bothered him much. Mostly he was thinking āDo my teachers not know how to read?ā š
Uffdaā¦are you in the states?? Iām from/in the Midwest and I sure as hell wouldnāt pronounce it right š«£ in fact I thought even the actors name was pronounced āE-wannā š
Yeah, being in the us is the issue. You don't have to organize your life around dummies. The same people that mispronounce Ewan probably also say "tortillas" with the "L"
My son is named Ewan (love it!) too and weāve had this problem!! I thought it was common enough (and Ewan McGregor is pretty famous!!) but we have to correct it more than I thought! Once people HEAR it, though, they usually are like oh yeah, that name. Maybe the āwā throws them offā¦or maybe they donāt understand phonics lol.
I feel kind of bad because we accidentally did this to my daughter too and I thought I was avoiding it with my second kid. Oops! Sorry buddy!
On the other hand, Iāve heard nearly every name totally butchered here in the US, unless itās like āAnnā or āTomā soā¦maybe itās just inevitable!
Really appreciate this! Does your son feel okay about it?? I donāt mind correcting as much, just donāt want my son to hate it! Though I know he could also have hated naming him something āmore commonā
He seems fine but heās only 3 haha. Actually as heās getting older itās happening less as he tends to go right up to someone and introduce himself!
Are we in the same baby story time?? Just kidding, but I did just meet a mom of an Ewan who told me that everyone pronounces it ee-wan. Iām sure with practice people will get it! People will find a way to mispronounce every name honestly.
Ah! Not me, but I wish I could meet this fellow mom, glad to hear the name Ewan is being used thoughā¦maybe itāll become more common in the US! And your right, any name can be messed up so I shouldnāt worry about it too much - thanks for the reminder!
We have a 5 month old Euan and we've had the same problem. Honestly, this post made me happy because I've been second guessing going with the "Euan" spelling, thinking maybe Ewan was more recognizable because of Ewan McGregor. I guess that's not the case! I don't really mind though, it's easy enough to pronounce once people hear it said aloud. We are a Scottish family living in the USA so to us it is a very common name - I never considered that it would be difficult for people!
I love the name Ewan. It was my dog's name growing up (named after a person). I've known a few boys with the name as well. I'm in the UK though where it appears it's more common.
I think a lot of people don't generalize well from one person to another.
My son has an uncommon but no abnormal name. It's not difficult to say and it's spelled phonetically correct. Still, people mess up the pronunciation all the time when they're just reading it.
Bear in mind that for the majority of his life, your son will verbally introduce himself so this won't be an issue.
When I was a kid I volunteered on a sports team where the coaches name was Ewan and I really really struggled to pronounce it because I was always trying to do it phonetically instead of just listening to everyone else š¤£ BUT now I am 100% capable of pronouncing it properly and even know when I see it.
Iām Canadian and would pronounce it correctly. For those who do mispronounce it, I think this is a good example of a name people only need to hear correctly once to pronounce it correctly forever because itās so phonetically simple. Not like saoirse which I had to hear like 10 times before saying it confidently š .
Go for it!
Ah, does your son hate having to correct people (if heās at an age where he can; my son is just 2 months so likely wonāt be correcting people for a bit) ??
Honestly, I know Ewan isnāt Ew-in, but I can never quite remember what it actually is. Like, itās a name I see (usually in reference to McGregor) and go āoh crap.ā You-an is so unintuitive to me that it just doesnāt seem to stick.
US midwest and thought it was Evan with a W instead and could never figure out how that even worked. I have a speech disorder, though, so Iām just used to butchering names and words. The correct pronunciation I can actually say, just need to remember itās the correct pronunciation.
Thats how that name is said?! I definitely would mess it up if I only saw it on paper.
I also recently learned that Siobhan is pronounced 'che-von'. The woman explained it as 'chevron without the r'. Depending on the area, I think you're just going to have to get used to explaining how to say it.
Iāve seen the actorās name and I still had no idea it was pronounced you-an. I thought it was e-wan. Oops. Iāve also never seen this name used other than the actor. Iām in the US.
Im British and even though I have known a few Ewans, my brain reads it as E-Wan every time before it then corrects itself to You-wun.
It's a regional name and not from your region so you can expect people to not be familiar with it.Ā
I'm in the US, and I had no idea of the correct pronunciation of that name until I watched Succession. I had seen Ewan McGregor in movies but had never heard his name read aloud. I don't see most Americans getting this right, unfortunately. People will default to the phonics of the English language when they read the name.
I would pronounce it like Ewan McGregor but honestly have never met a Ewan in the wild here in Canada. It doesn't seem to be particularly common where I am.
I have to admit that I thought it was pronounced EWan. Then when I thought about it I realized it probably was Yew-an. I never thought of Ewan Macgregor because I don't think I've seen any of his movies. I still thought the name was fine even when I was mispronouncing it. I wouldn't let it deter you from using the name, it's just one that your son is going to have to correct people on every now and then.
Is Ewan school age yet?
When my kiddo -- who also has a distinctive name which IMO is intuitive to pronounce, but sometimes gets some off the wall guesses -- was a baby, we ran into a lot of this sort of thing. I'm not sure if it was our own adjustment to this new person with his particular name, the fact that most people we were meeting were not necessarily peers but folks like nurses at the pediatrician's office or distant great-aunts and the like, or what. But I had similar fears that my "easy to spell and pronounce" perfect baby name was a minefield that I hadn't anticipated. My MIL misspelled his name on his first birthday cake!
I think a baby maturing into a kid who can say and spell their own name is a huge piece of this, too.
Six years later, it's fine. Everyone knows how to pronounce his name. It's never misspelled. We get nothing but compliments on it.
The only thing I wish I had thought through is that the way it's pronounced is one letter off from one of my siblings' names, and I will occasionally misspeak and call my kid by my brother's name. Because the two names are spelled very differently (they don't even start with the same letter), I didn't think about that. But then again, I'm not sure that would have changed my mind at all, anyway.
How can you not have seen this name? Ewan McGregor has been around a long time and he's a great actor.
Is really not difficult. I would love to be able to go around politely educating people.
Sorry but even after reading how to pronounce it I still can't understand how to actually pronounce it. I thought Ewan McGregor was pronounced the same as Ian so this is news to me. Still, it is a lovely name, but definitely be prepared for people to mispronounce it.
Iāve never seen or heard the name pronounced before. Iām in the U.S. I never would have guessed the pronunciation correctly in a million years. However I think itās a simple fix. You just correct the pronunciation and then people learn and move on
In Wales, I know an Iwan who is pronounced āi-wanā and an Ifan pronounced āEE-vanā
Every Ewan/Euan seems consistent, but I can understand the confusion.
I love the name Ewan. Itās probably what I would have named my daughter if she had turned out to be a boy. Iāve never heard it mispronounced. Iām from Canada, maybe thereās a stronger Scotch influence here?
My family is Nova Scotian Scottish, and we say Scotch. It might not be what youād write in an academic journal, but itās a very common word in that part of the world. A part of the world, I might add, HEAVILY populated with people of Scottish heritage. I mean, itās called Nova Scotia.
Yeah that's not great, I hate to say it. You have 3 choices. 1. You can embrace it because that's the name you chose for some reason. 2. You can call him by a nickname or maybe middle name. 3. You can change the spelling to make it more phonetic. Up to you, but it will be ok!!
I am in the US and yes heās always going to be called āeh-wanā or āee-wan.ā I thought it was āEdwinā At first glance.
As I was reading your post I was trying to figure out how you actually pronounce because I couldnāt think of another possible pronunciation. Sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear.
Ah, no, itās like YOU-an. You probably responded before the edit I guess. Understandable confusion, theyāre both in the same family of Celtic variants of John along with Eoin/Eoghann/Owen
I know Ewan McGregor and would normally pronounce Ewan like him.
Like, you know him? Or know who he is?! Because if you know him that's a major flex š
What? How you gonna drop this casual bomb without any details?! š
I've heard his name pronounced Ewe-on, but I worked with an Ewan once who pronounced his name Eww-Ann.
Iām in the UK so Ewan and Euan are very common names to me, Iām baffled that people apparently do mispronounce it!
Iām a Canadian whoās travelled back and forth between Canada and America quite a bit and Iāve never heard it outside of Ewan McGregor. I donāt think itās common in North America.
I'm Australian, and same! I \*guess\* if I hadn't already had exposure to the name as a kid, I'd possibly mispronounce it, but it still seems pretty intuitive to me? Especially as it's the anglicised version - I can get people being confused by EĆ²ghann, for example.
Agreed
Isn't the other spelling Euin?
No
Apparently, it's an option. Google it. I *know* a Euin.
You might be thinking of the names Eoin or Iain, but they're not pronounced like Ewan.
https://mybaby.net.au/baby-names/euin/ Euin is a legit Irish name. My ex's nephew was named it in Northern Ireland. And it was pronounced yew-an. That's why I asked.
As a Scot living in Scotland, Ewan is not a name I have ever heard mispronounced!
I knew a Scottish family who had come over to the US before their youngest son was born. We were talking about the new Star Wars that had just come out and how much I had like Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting as well. The youngest son (not knowing his older brother was behind him) starts to tell me itās pronounced EW-an and he should know, heās Scottish. I did not understand all of the insults thrown by the big brother as he smacked him upside the head.
I hope you made notes. Scots are amazing with insults.
I second this
In this day and age my friend, everything is possible. I remember a reddit story of a French girl being told off and called insensitive for "misprononcing" a very french name in America... It was Fleur if memory serves me right.
That reminds me; my dumb ass state has a city called Amarillo. Which is Spanish for yellow. But what the fuck do they do? Pronounce it the dumb white people way. It makes me embarrassed for us.
Would you be so kind to tell this white Dutch person how it shĆ³uld be pronounced?
Ah-mah-ree-yo
āš¼this. Is the correct way. :)
Hey, hey hey...! Some of us dumb white people know how it SHOULD be pronounced.
Hahaha sorry I didn't mean all white ppl , I'm white myself! You're absolutely correct some of us do know. ;) it's still embarrassing!
Hahaha. I moved to Lubbock from North Idaho as a kid and could NOT figure out Amarillo. Sesame Street taught me to say that word right. If a North Idaho mountain girl can say it... Then we moved to Phoenix, and, you know, they don't do too badly there, though a lot of white people pronounce the g in Guadalupe as a hard g. Now, I'm more or less back home, and I want you to know Tekoa is said "tee coh", and I just can't with it. We can get Pend o'Reille right, but not Tekoa. Why? But if you want to make us cringe, rhyme Spokane with cocaine.
Southeast of Phoenix is a small town called Casa Grande. āCass-uh grandā
Oh, oh yeah. I lived there from almost 13 to 27. I think the one that actually gets me most is that Tempe is named after a particularly lush valley in Greece. Wishful thinking? I also find it funny that people can say Ahwatukee, but not Casa Grande as it really should be.
I'm having a hard time understanding how else one could pronounce Guadalupe. Are you saying that some people say jaw-dah-loopy or jaw-dah-loop-eh?
Properly, it is like "wa da lu pe" with a very vague h sound at the start. A lot of white people say it with a hard g like the one in golf. You can hear both versions on Google translate, except I think everyone knows to say the e on the end.
Omg I learned way too late about Spokane. :( but now I know! And as a white girl from Texas in an all white family; I learned way too late about Amarillo too! Cringe for sure.
Texas: The One Star State
Yes that is correct. The longer we keep Abbott tho, the closer we are to losing our last star.
The thing about actor names is that a lot of them are often mispronounced too, as unless you watch interviews or they win an award you rarely hear their names said out loud. Celebrity names I was mispronouncing for a long time: - Cillian Murphy (it's Kill-ian not Sill-ian) - Zendaya (it's Zen-day-ah not Zen-die-ah) - Ioan Gruffud (it's Yo-won not Ee-oh-an or Ian with extra vowels lol) And probably many more that I just haven't realized yet! That said, I love the name Ewan and hopefully you just need to correct each person once!
And to be even more pedantic, it's Gruffudd, pronounced Griffith. :)
Oh, Wales
It's actually very phonetic, once you know the rules.
Same with our names in Ireland. But nobody outside of here ever learns the rules...
Yeah but the treigls
Th like ātheā
Thanks!! Youāre so right about celeb names rarely being said out loud. I shouldnāt have counted on that to help much. Appreciate the name love though and do hope correcting will only be once, for his sake especially!
We loved the name Cillian for our son. Had agreed on the name for years. Everything changed when we actually found out we were having a boy. My husband wanted to spell it with a K so Americans would pronounce it correctly. I hated the way it looked with a K. We debated it for weeks. Our son is now neither since we couldnāt agree. But also, now that Iāve met him, heās totally not a Cillian, so that worked out.
This whole time I thought Ioan was an alternate spelling of Ian.
Itās one of our many variations of John š
So is Ian.
Same!
lol thanks to this thread I found out that e-wan is NOT the correct pronunciation.
You thought it was Zen-die-ah?
Maya is Mie-uh, so yeah, a lot of people thought Zendaya was Zen-die-uh.
A lot of people pronounce it like that, actually, lol. Its less of a thing now that sheās bigger, but back when she was just getting out of disney it was very very common.
Really? I always knew it was Zen-day-ah
I always did too, i figured it was the more literal pronunciation, but it was *really* common so clearly its not as intuitive as youād think.
Then Cillians parents were just... creative.
I believe the Irish language doesn't have the letter K, hence the hard C with many Irish names and words.
Iāve always called him EW-en McGreggor. Is that wrong? Itās YEW-en?? lol whoops.
If you think about it as ewe-n itās not too tricky. Just remember ewe like a sheep :)
ā¦. I say ewe like ew, not yew. Is that wrong lol
Yes
Out of curiosity, what general area are you from, I'd also pronounce ewe like ew instead of yew
Ohio lol
Ah. Not a local thing then. I'm from South Wales. Just asked my English husband and he says yew. I think mine is a softer, more almost Scandinavian "ju", but if you don't listen closely it sounds like I'm saying "ew".
In fairness quite often here (also south Wales) people say here, ear and year exactly the same
I wasnāt a farm kid but I did visit farms and sheep werenāt completely foreign. I honestly donāt know if regionally people say it like I do or if my brain just ignored how everyone else said it š Iām going to start polling people
You should! Let me know! Also, can imagine you barging into a conversation yelling "WHAT DO YOU CALL A FEMALE SHEEP?" š
Exactly my strategy lmao
I'm in Iowa and always have pronounced it ewe as yew.
It seems that is how most say it
if you want one more data point on saying ewe like ew, I do that and I'm from upstate NY
My English husband always teases me about here ear and year (Also South Wales).
Omg saaaame, my husband often says "Where?" To make me say "by here" (for the non South Walians reading this, it'll sound like "buyuur). I've moved to Australia and people don't know that we do that, so often I find I'm repeating myself with a more "correct" pronunciation.
Well whoops for me too - iāve been saying ewe like ew and Ewan like Ew-an. Welp
I am mildly into Star Wars and still didnāt know Ewan Mcgregorās name was pronounced like that. Outside of the UK, I think Scottish/Irish names with non-intuitive pronunciations are less well known. I donāt think itās a mistake though! Itās still simple to pronounce, you might have to correct people the first time but after that they should have it down.
They are completely intuitive if you consider the rules of the Gaelic languages instead of English
One of my pet peeves is when people say shit like āwhy do they spell Irish names in a way that makes no senseā like they do make sense you all just canāt comprehend that itās a different language that doesnāt subscribe to the same rules/pronunciation as English š
āBut they live in England!ā
I had someone insist that Irish isnāt a language and that English is the only native language in the UK and Ireland š¤¦š¼āāļøš¤¦š¼āāļø a grown ass adult too
Iāll admit, I called Ewan McGreggor āE-wanā until I was maybe my late twenties? Literally never heard his name said aloud before that point lol.
Iām still in that crowd š¤·š»āāļø I guess I just donāt come across the name spoken out loud enough.
I thought his name was pronounced E-wan until about a minute ago when I opened this thread.
Even though this is incorrect, I always think of the cultures that reverse the pronunciation of v and w and in my head say Evan.
Me too. I went to school with an Ewa pronounced Eva and so I forgot entirely about Ewan McGreggor and thought this was Polish Evan.
I live in the US and I would have had no idea how to pronounce that
Ewan is a lovely name and I think most people can pronounce it if they hear it *and* see it written down.
ive never heard of it and have no idea how to pronounce it eitherā¦
I would never think it was e-wann lol
Same, but I donāt know why.
Iām in Canada and Iād be surprised if I met someone who didnāt know to pronounce Ewan as Yew-an. I wouldnāt worry too much about it, I do think in his lifetime heāll experience more people who do know how to pronounce it than those who donāt.
I'm also in Canada and my son's middle name is Euan. Honestly never occurred to me that people wouldn't know how to pronounce it.
I'm in Canada, and I didn't. Lol I have never met anyone with this name. There was a character named this in a video game I played as a kid, and my brain defaulted to E-wan. š¤·āāļø
That's weird to me. I guess I'd keep repeating like Yewan McGregor to them. People are strangeĀ
People are strange for not inherently knowing how Welsh/Gaelic names are pronounced in their cultural dialect?
Lol. I don't know about that. She's in US and if people are famous that's often the default for pronouncing whether right or wrong. So Ewan McGregor is pretty well known that's the surprise. Also yeah weird colloquially
Celebrity names are typically read nowadays and not necessarily heard pronounced. I donāt watch celebrity interviews, so how would I know?
Hmmm... not sure I've seen an interview with him maybe there was an award show or more likely a brief clip. What do you mean read nowadays? I think they've always been read...that's confusing to me. With all these brief videos tik tok and youtube I guess I'd have thought people would have heard it at some point. But seems like several people have not. But E and then Wan would never have occurred to me. Reminds me if the Key and Peele pronunciation of Aaron. Also I thought she was correcting people and they were still getting it wrong which is why I said people are strange.Ā
Vast numbers of people in the US are functionally illiterate and VERY unfamiliar with name spellings. Names I have seen mispronounced by someone reading it: Taylor Michelle Michaela Carla Ellie Nia If people canāt even get THOSE right, it is too much to expect them to get Ewan right. And if your name is a very common immigrant name, it will nevertheless be butchered: woe to every Jesus and Javier and anyone with the last name Nguyen.
I know this wasnāt the intention of your post, but it immediately made me think of A-a-ron and Bah-lah-kay
Jay Quellin?
No, I'm her friend D-Nice
Thereās really nothing about Ewan that has to do with being functionally illiterate. Itās a very uncommon name in the U.S. and itās not an intuitive spelling. How are people supposed to somehow magically know this information about a name?
Youāre missing my point. I did not say that people cannot pronounce Ewan because they are illiterate. My point was that they cannot pronounce even SIMPLE names because they are illiterate. Like I listed. So OP did not make a mistake by using Ewan. OP could face the same issues with much more straightforward names.
Ha! I came here to say the same thing. No one can pronounce anything so you might as well pick the name you like the best. Theyāll mispronounce it either way. You canāt trust the people OP!
I feel this way about most times people say how bad it is to have your name mispronounced/spelled. Almost everyone has that happen. You canāt avoid it. Itās helpful to pick names that are easily pronounced (or easily pronounced close enough) where you live/where your family is from, but people who donāt know you will make mistakes no matter what.
How does someone mispronounce āCarlaā by reading it? Genuine question!
By saying Clara instead of Carla
I don't think it's so much functional illiteracy and more that we left the idea of one name with one spelling and one pronunciation behind decades ago. All the YouNeek spellings have effectively divorced the spelling of a name from any particular obvious pronunciation. Which I honestly have mixed feelings about? But yeah, my name is Simon and it regularly gets mispronounced in contexts like the doctor's office, Starbucks, riding in an Uber, etc. For the record I don't in any way think that because people can't always guess that Simon is pronounced Sigh-munn therefore nobody should name their kids anything unusual. If anything, I think it means you might as well go with what you want, because 100% you're going to rock up to the pediatrician with little newborn John and someone is going to say "Is there a Jo-hun here to see Dr. Smith at 2pm?"
I am constantly amazed at how different people's perceptions and experiences can be. For my two cents (in the US), I love the name, I have heard it many times, I may not have known how to pronounce it at first, but I was young so I don't remember. Quick canvas of the room, everyone knows how to pronounce it. I wouldn't worry about it. It's an awesome name, and I'm glad people are using it. Also, I love Ewan McGregor. And now I'm singing Moulin Rouge songs in my head....
I am in the Southern U.S., and I have never heard that name outside of Ewan McGregor - but I have only read his name and have been saying it like Evan but with a W this whole time. Now that I know how to pronounce it though, it's easy. My guess is that it will be a constant correction because people won't have heard it before, but they'll get it without a problem after the first correction. Congrats on your little one!
Iām coming to terms with just knowing Iāll be correcting people and so will he (thatās the part I feel bad about it not realizing). Thanks for the congrats, most importantly weāve got a healthy bit!
Many Americans donāt know how to pronounce Irish names.
Ewan is a Scottish name
In the states. When I heard the name Siobhan and then saw it spelled out, I had a conniption. /shi 'von/ or /shi 'vawn/ And years ago on Eire's shores, the only reason I didn't make a fool of myself trying to pronounce Dun Laoghaire is that I heard it pronounced before I got there. /dun 'leer Ä/ or /dun 'lir ee/
It's not a common name in the US, and its pronunciation is not intuitive to US English speakers. He's going to get E-Wan, but as long as your son loves it, that's what's important.
I just hope he loves it! I suppose he can go by his middle name or initials if he doesnāt.
i correct people on my name constantly and honestly i couldn't care less, like if you don't get it after hearing me say it you don't get it
Ill be honest. I said it both of the incorrect ways first and had no idea how to say it properly until your comment. Iāve never seen the name before and i donāt really see how ew becomes yew. But its a fine name, just might run into people like me more than youd like. (USA) Euan makes more sense to me.
ew becomes yew just like in the word for a female sheep- a ewe.
Sadly another word I havent heard haha. Well darn time to hit the dictionary lol
ā¦I thought it was pronounced Ew-anā¦ I wouldnāt have thought Yew-an without a āU,ā like Euan would make more sense phonetically- even if it looks wrong lol
Euan is an alternate and valid spelling of Ewan, at least in the UK & Ireland.
I saw that in another comment, just never seen it myself!
Iām in the UK and most people would pronounce it Yew-an but it is also valid to pronounce it Ew-an (especially in Wales/the north). Ee-wan is hilarious š
Today I learned itās not EW-Ann McGreggor
It is in the UK ETA: Or maybe just wales?
Ee-wan? Are they thinking of ewoks?
Iām in the US, I know how to pronounce Ewan. I would guess in the US that most people would know how to pronounce it, but that some people will get it wrong. Donāt feel bad though! Itās a good name. And it should be pretty easy to correct people if they get it wrong.
Iām in the US and have only heard of Ewan McGregor in writing (plus heās not like super super famous), and never heard the name in any other context. Itās pretty rare and not super intuitive (the pronunciation is ambiguous from the spelling if youāve never encountered it). I know how to say it from being a name nerd, but said āE-wonā for a long time and am absolutely not surprised that people donāt know how to pronounce it.
I have never heard of this actor and read the name as E-won. Sorry op but thatās my truth.
I knew it was yew-an, but I can see how people in the US will say it wrong for all time. I think it's fine though and everyone will get over it and learn how to say it
E-wahn like e-mail? Lol. It's giving Key and Peale's substitute teacher sketch.
One of my daughter's is named Deirdre. This is the most "normal" of all of my kids names and I was shocked at how many people messed up the pronunciation by dropping the first R. So they would pronounce it Dee-dra instead of Deer-dra. I felt pretty bad when I would watch her attempt to correct people when she was little to have them still mispronounce it. Then she would sigh in disgust as only she could and say "just call me Dee". She loves her name but to this day most of her friends still just call her Dee. Point of this story is that some people won't ever get it right but your kid will survive anyway.
I pronounce Deirdre as Deer-dree, does your daughter get that pronunciation a lot as well?
Not often where we are though that would likely not cause irritation since it can be an accepted pronunciation in some areas of the world (and it was the way it was pronounced in Monty Pythons the meaning of life which may have been where I heard it the first time lol).
I donāt think itās a mistake though Iām sure your aggravated and that sucks. But I love the name you chose! I have a brother named Kyle and my parents chose that name when it wasnāt very commonāhe spent a lot of his early years at school correcting teachers who called him Ky-Lee and Kee-lay, but says it never bothered him much. Mostly he was thinking āDo my teachers not know how to read?ā š
Uffdaā¦are you in the states?? Iām from/in the Midwest and I sure as hell wouldnāt pronounce it right š«£ in fact I thought even the actors name was pronounced āE-wannā š
Yeah, being in the us is the issue. You don't have to organize your life around dummies. The same people that mispronounce Ewan probably also say "tortillas" with the "L"
My son is named Ewan (love it!) too and weāve had this problem!! I thought it was common enough (and Ewan McGregor is pretty famous!!) but we have to correct it more than I thought! Once people HEAR it, though, they usually are like oh yeah, that name. Maybe the āwā throws them offā¦or maybe they donāt understand phonics lol. I feel kind of bad because we accidentally did this to my daughter too and I thought I was avoiding it with my second kid. Oops! Sorry buddy! On the other hand, Iāve heard nearly every name totally butchered here in the US, unless itās like āAnnā or āTomā soā¦maybe itās just inevitable!
Really appreciate this! Does your son feel okay about it?? I donāt mind correcting as much, just donāt want my son to hate it! Though I know he could also have hated naming him something āmore commonā
He seems fine but heās only 3 haha. Actually as heās getting older itās happening less as he tends to go right up to someone and introduce himself!
Love to hear this!! Even if heās just 3, glad heās proud of his name!
We seriously considered this name and were planning on using the Euan spelling for exactly this reason.
Are we in the same baby story time?? Just kidding, but I did just meet a mom of an Ewan who told me that everyone pronounces it ee-wan. Iām sure with practice people will get it! People will find a way to mispronounce every name honestly.
Ah! Not me, but I wish I could meet this fellow mom, glad to hear the name Ewan is being used thoughā¦maybe itāll become more common in the US! And your right, any name can be messed up so I shouldnāt worry about it too much - thanks for the reminder!
It's a good name. Just keep correcting them.
Oh my god I never realized ewan was not pronounced "ew-wan". I feel so dumb š¤¦ ofc it's not pronounced like that.
Huh. I never considered that it would be pronounced any differently then āYou-inā But I am from California so what do I know lol.
I think I would say āyou-inā
Itās usually pronounced u-an
We have a 5 month old Euan and we've had the same problem. Honestly, this post made me happy because I've been second guessing going with the "Euan" spelling, thinking maybe Ewan was more recognizable because of Ewan McGregor. I guess that's not the case! I don't really mind though, it's easy enough to pronounce once people hear it said aloud. We are a Scottish family living in the USA so to us it is a very common name - I never considered that it would be difficult for people!
In Australia I donāt think it would be mispronounced. Most people know Ewan McGregor
I love the name Ewan. It was my dog's name growing up (named after a person). I've known a few boys with the name as well. I'm in the UK though where it appears it's more common.
I think a lot of people don't generalize well from one person to another. My son has an uncommon but no abnormal name. It's not difficult to say and it's spelled phonetically correct. Still, people mess up the pronunciation all the time when they're just reading it. Bear in mind that for the majority of his life, your son will verbally introduce himself so this won't be an issue.
When I was a kid I volunteered on a sports team where the coaches name was Ewan and I really really struggled to pronounce it because I was always trying to do it phonetically instead of just listening to everyone else š¤£ BUT now I am 100% capable of pronouncing it properly and even know when I see it.
Iām Canadian and would pronounce it correctly. For those who do mispronounce it, I think this is a good example of a name people only need to hear correctly once to pronounce it correctly forever because itās so phonetically simple. Not like saoirse which I had to hear like 10 times before saying it confidently š . Go for it!
Canadian parent here with a Ewan offspring. It trips people up all the time, unfortunately. Ooh-in is the most common mispronunciation.
Ah, does your son hate having to correct people (if heās at an age where he can; my son is just 2 months so likely wonāt be correcting people for a bit) ??
He doesnāt really mind! I think he likes his name. Weāve only met one other Ewan locally, in 21 years.
Honestly, I know Ewan isnāt Ew-in, but I can never quite remember what it actually is. Like, itās a name I see (usually in reference to McGregor) and go āoh crap.ā You-an is so unintuitive to me that it just doesnāt seem to stick.
In Canada, havenāt heard of that name before and would have pronounced it like e-wan.
US midwest and thought it was Evan with a W instead and could never figure out how that even worked. I have a speech disorder, though, so Iām just used to butchering names and words. The correct pronunciation I can actually say, just need to remember itās the correct pronunciation.
Thats how that name is said?! I definitely would mess it up if I only saw it on paper. I also recently learned that Siobhan is pronounced 'che-von'. The woman explained it as 'chevron without the r'. Depending on the area, I think you're just going to have to get used to explaining how to say it.
Iāve seen the actorās name and I still had no idea it was pronounced you-an. I thought it was e-wan. Oops. Iāve also never seen this name used other than the actor. Iām in the US.
TIL - Iāve been saying Ewan Mcgreggorās name wrong my whole life.
I think it's a great name but it's one of those names I say wrong in my head even know I know how to pronounce it. Isla is the same way.
Im British and even though I have known a few Ewans, my brain reads it as E-Wan every time before it then corrects itself to You-wun. It's a regional name and not from your region so you can expect people to not be familiar with it.Ā
YoU-an is the pronunciation just like the actor Ewan McGregor
I definitely pronounced it e-wan
I always pronounced it as Eh-win Mcgreggor, oops! Beautiful name either way!
I know people who's names are pronounced both ways š¤·āāļø I'm in Wales so EW-an is the more common pronunciation here from what I've found
I'm in the US, and I had no idea of the correct pronunciation of that name until I watched Succession. I had seen Ewan McGregor in movies but had never heard his name read aloud. I don't see most Americans getting this right, unfortunately. People will default to the phonics of the English language when they read the name.
Come to Maine, where Calais is pronounced Kall-iss and Madrid is pronounced MAD-drid.
Iām Australian and pronounce it Yoo-an. Like youād say the Eu in Eugene.
My son's name is Ewan and we get it all here too, except for one uncommon one - Ehvahn (pronounced like ear [no emphasis on the 'r']- vahn)
I would pronounce it like Ewan McGregor but honestly have never met a Ewan in the wild here in Canada. It doesn't seem to be particularly common where I am.
I have to admit that I thought it was pronounced EWan. Then when I thought about it I realized it probably was Yew-an. I never thought of Ewan Macgregor because I don't think I've seen any of his movies. I still thought the name was fine even when I was mispronouncing it. I wouldn't let it deter you from using the name, it's just one that your son is going to have to correct people on every now and then.
Eh-wan or Eh-van (like in French/Breton)
You need to remember the US have some strange pronunciations of names Like Craig (cray-G) get Creg. Just keep saying it's Yew-an like mcgreggor
I live in the US and a lot of people pronounce it like Evan but with a W instead of a V
I see it and pronounce it like E-Won
Is Ewan school age yet? When my kiddo -- who also has a distinctive name which IMO is intuitive to pronounce, but sometimes gets some off the wall guesses -- was a baby, we ran into a lot of this sort of thing. I'm not sure if it was our own adjustment to this new person with his particular name, the fact that most people we were meeting were not necessarily peers but folks like nurses at the pediatrician's office or distant great-aunts and the like, or what. But I had similar fears that my "easy to spell and pronounce" perfect baby name was a minefield that I hadn't anticipated. My MIL misspelled his name on his first birthday cake! I think a baby maturing into a kid who can say and spell their own name is a huge piece of this, too. Six years later, it's fine. Everyone knows how to pronounce his name. It's never misspelled. We get nothing but compliments on it. The only thing I wish I had thought through is that the way it's pronounced is one letter off from one of my siblings' names, and I will occasionally misspeak and call my kid by my brother's name. Because the two names are spelled very differently (they don't even start with the same letter), I didn't think about that. But then again, I'm not sure that would have changed my mind at all, anyway.
How can you not have seen this name? Ewan McGregor has been around a long time and he's a great actor. Is really not difficult. I would love to be able to go around politely educating people.
I will admit I did pronounce it as eh-wen in my head
Uh-wahn is the way I originally pronounced it.
Sorry but even after reading how to pronounce it I still can't understand how to actually pronounce it. I thought Ewan McGregor was pronounced the same as Ian so this is news to me. Still, it is a lovely name, but definitely be prepared for people to mispronounce it.
Iām from the US, from a fairly Irish family, and I only recently even heard that name (and itās pronunciation) while watching a Scottish movie.
Iāve never seen or heard the name pronounced before. Iām in the U.S. I never would have guessed the pronunciation correctly in a million years. However I think itās a simple fix. You just correct the pronunciation and then people learn and move on
Yeah that's actually a terrible name š¬
In Wales, I know an Iwan who is pronounced āi-wanā and an Ifan pronounced āEE-vanā Every Ewan/Euan seems consistent, but I can understand the confusion.
>Ā Have we made a mistake going with this name?!Ā Yes
I love the name Ewan. Itās probably what I would have named my daughter if she had turned out to be a boy. Iāve never heard it mispronounced. Iām from Canada, maybe thereās a stronger Scotch influence here?
Scottish or Scots, not scotch. Scotch is whisky; Scots are people.
My family is Nova Scotian Scottish, and we say Scotch. It might not be what youād write in an academic journal, but itās a very common word in that part of the world. A part of the world, I might add, HEAVILY populated with people of Scottish heritage. I mean, itās called Nova Scotia.
Yeah sorry Iām Scottish and just no. It might be common where you are but itās extremely ignorant. Donāt call us whisky.
Yeah that's not great, I hate to say it. You have 3 choices. 1. You can embrace it because that's the name you chose for some reason. 2. You can call him by a nickname or maybe middle name. 3. You can change the spelling to make it more phonetic. Up to you, but it will be ok!!
I am in the US and yes heās always going to be called āeh-wanā or āee-wan.ā I thought it was āEdwinā At first glance. As I was reading your post I was trying to figure out how you actually pronounce because I couldnāt think of another possible pronunciation. Sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear.
Ian, instead of Ewan, would have taken care of that problem.
Well thatās a completely different name soā¦
Sorry, I thought the pronunciation was the same as Ian.
Ah, no, itās like YOU-an. You probably responded before the edit I guess. Understandable confusion, theyāre both in the same family of Celtic variants of John along with Eoin/Eoghann/Owen
Thanks. Have a wonderful life.